"My Fairmount" Show at Rembrant's Restaurant

On the walk down to the gym this morning I had to stop and photograph the blossoms on the trees all up and down the block. I left Rembrant's to see the other art exhibits and found these amazing weavings at the Ukranian Social Club display. They had hand crafted wood carvings, embroidery, batiks, eggs, ceramics and paintings on glass that were intricate and beautiful.

All this month my work will be on display in the Z Cafe at Rembrant's Restaurant. There are 14 framed photographs, ranging from smaller 8" x 10" works to large 21" x 27" photo collages. The cafe opens at 8 am to serve coffee(espresso, etc.) and breakfast for folks waiting for the 48 or 7 bus at 23rd and Aspen Streets (like me) and has a really nice old wood bar to enjoy your coffee at while watching the flat screen to see when the bus is coming down the street (Bus Cam).

This is a nice neighborhood place in Philly.

The SHADFEST in Fishtown was great. I ran into many many Handmade Philly/Philly ETSY Teamers and local folks from garden, farm, library and design projects in the city. It's a wonderful park and being next to the water was great.

SUPER WEEKEND: SHAD FEST and ARTS CRAWL

Join me this weekend at the Shad Fest in Fishtown at Penn Treaty Park on Saturday April 25 from 11 - 5 pm! I will have new images from the Eastern State Penitentiary, from my trip to Charleston (beautiful bridges, pelicans, boats on the water) and from my series "My Fairmount," images of homes, signs, businesses and details. There will be a run, guided trolley rides, kayaking, music, food, kids activities and of course art and craft booths. Follow the link to directions and all the activities.



Then join me on Sunday April 26 for the Fairmount Arts Crawl at Rembrant's Restaurant at 23rd and Aspen Streets, next to the Penitentiary, from 2 - 6 pm to check out my show in the cafe (room behind the bar). I will have framed individual photographs, large photo collages and image grids of the "My Fairmount" series, along with a first draft of a hardbound book of the series. Follow the link for a list of events and venues for art as well as the artist profiles.

TRIP TIPS: Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston was awesome, and I wanted to share some of the things to see and do on your visit:

Some basics: Charleston is on a peninsula surrounded by rivers, large islands and smaller barrier islands. It's an old southern city with historic homes, churches, great shopping (alt. shops: design, fabric, records, crafts, art, furniture, cupcakes), good, fresh local food (think of your favorite breakfast place, they have it too), coffee shops, beautiful flowers, parks, trees, a really green downtown and it's small enough to be walkable, but big enough you keep finding more things you haven't seen. I was there for 10 days, and I could go back for another week and find plenty to do.

Place to eat lunch: CRU CAFE

Right behind the red barn where the carriage rides begin, CRU had lunch for under $10 and the food looks and tastes amazing! Nice porch and house like interior to choose from.

Thing to Do: KAYAKING SHEM CREEK

Nature Adventure Outfitters had great, super friendly guides who really knew their stuff. Kathie, the owner, had lots of advice on which of the many locations to choose from (Shem Creek had the most birds to take pictures of and is the closest to Charleston, we walked across the bridge to get there) and Craig was probably one of the best guide I've ever had. We took a casual paddle down several creeks and back past shrimp boats (one was on Dirtiest Jobs) and pelicans, gulls and anhingas and learned about lightning whelks and horseshoe crabs. Oh, and they give a portion of their proceeds to environmental causes.

Things to See: JOSEPH MANIGAULT HOUSE

A nice quick tour of a beautiful house, with friendly and personable hosts. The plaster work on the ceilings is unbelievable, as is the furniture. The house has a rich history of different uses over the years and the family of ownership is interconnected with several of the other historic rich plantation owners in the area (it's like the Young and the Restless).

Place to stay: VACATION RENTALS.COM

There were only a few rentals to choose from, but staying in an apartment or cottage (as I did) is 100 x's better than staying in a tourist trap hotel. I was in a beautiful neighborhood close to the visitors center, trolleys, the Charleston Museum, shopping, the Aquarium, the library, restaurants and the college. The neighborhood is called Mazyck-Wraggborough. I had a great place with it's own courtyard with fountain, it's own kitchen, and a wonderful family who left snacks, fresh fruit, wine and banana bread.

Great Shop: Dig Down Gallery

I found Dig Down Gallery on ETSY last week and I wanted to share some of thes fantastic photographs. His work spans many decades, from the looks of it and he shoots in black and white and color, in New York, Philly, England, and his style is humorous and quirky. Some of the photographs reminded me of Gary Winnogrand's photographs of people at the zoo. The last photograph is so touching, I love it.

Dancing Fool

Gold Building

North End

Boxing Restaurant

My Bunny

We're trading photos with this week and I'm really excited to get the print.

Check Out My New Etsy Shop for Paintings

I created a new etsy shop over the weekend to make it much easier to find my paintings and reduce the number of pages in my etsy shop for photos. The new shop is AllisonsPaintings.etsy.com. Click on the images at the left and see how beautiful it is!

Craft Sale Table Set Up Photos

Since the sale season is starting soon, I thought I would offer up my table set up for critique and see how I can improve and upgrade my presentation. Now that I'm looking at these set-ups, they look pretty sad. Please leave comments and help! I'm wondering what's missing, accessories, boxes or stands for larger prints, frames, ways to use the vertical space...

I found these pictures of different set ups of the same seller that's helpful for ideas:

http://www.paperskirt.com/category/craft-show/

BIG OLD PAINTING SALE end of March One of a Kind!

I was looking at some paintings today and cleaning up older items on etsy when I thought, since things have been slow this month and I can't really get paintings framed by Mark until they sell, I would have a sale and take $15 off my original, one of a kind room paintings and branch paintings which regularly sell for $99 each. I love these paintings and I want them to find good homes soon. Each one has a simarly bright color palette, painting in acrylic on wood panels. I paint on wood because I want a super smooth surface and a matte/flat finish when the painting is done, so the shapes and color take center stage. If you scroll down on the page to look at the older posts, you can see details of the framing (not around but behind the painting) and features of the paintings.

I started collecting pictures from home magazines, tearing out my favorites and keeping them in binders, editing them down and after a while, I realized what I liked about some of the images wasn't the room or furniture, necessairly, but the colors and shapes. Then I thought I could paint simple versions of the images where I reinterpret the original. Here's my blue and red bedroom painting with the original.

This is a new one I'm working on now with the magazine page above. It still needs alot of work. I'm taking a break from it until I'm ready to fix it.

This is one of the branches paintings with the actualbranches I photographed in Elfreth's Alley. I'm always taking pictures of trees with interesting shapes.

I found this seller from Tucson, AZ today on etsy and wanted to share this awesome TV on fire sculpture:


From his intro: "When he first picked up metal as a medium, it was not for wind sculptures; Chris had it in his mind to improve on the chiminea, a popular outdoor heat source in the west. It wasn't long before he couldn't keep up with demand. He barely had time to sculpt what came to be one of his most popular pieces: The Primal TV, a life-sized replica of American television, complete with table stand and rabbit ears.' I think it really speaks to people's inner conflict about television and the guilty enjoyment we all feel spending so much time in front of it'."

New Zoo Photos

I was at the zoo with a photo group on Sunday and took some pictures with them, but also got some funny pics on my own after the tour. Take a look:

Here's Stella, the Laughing Giraffe (or it could be Gus, but someone said it was Stella). Follow the picture link to see the other 4 new animal portraits I posted including a rhino, croc. couple, peacocks and a flamingo's feathers.

New Etsy Shop Today

I was selected to be in a treasury of trains and I found this shop in the same treasury:

LocalWisdomCards from Stowe, Vermont

They have over 100 cards like this with a wide variety of quotes.
The collages are beautiful and very thoughtful and well crafted.

Great New (to me) ETSY Shops

I found this image while searching for sellers in Madrid and I had to have it. It just is what I want to be doing, where I want to be. I can't wait until I go on vacation. She has really beautiful travel photography in her shop: sabiha

I love this collage by Juliebe. Grace Kelly has such a serious look on her face, like it's a still from a Hitchcock thriller, then there's the beasty looking man in the flowers in the background. This shop is really cute.

Pleyades has a great eye for the dramatic and simple. The night scenes and street photography are great and some of the descriptions are really funny.

This oil painting is one of several in DefinaV's shop I love. They're very simple and beautifully painted still lifes.

I found this at the top of the listings today in the shop morphotos and I don't usually like digital-created photos, but these are really cool. I would use several of these in my classroom to demo different photo techniques (if I was still teaching photo).

The waves crashing photographs are wonderful as are the strange,
Felini-like multi-character "scenes" in this shop: Ruiz

I love these parking meters from Pigeons In The Attic, a fellow Philly Etsy Team Member.

New Paintings Released from the Vault!

I went digging through my box of paintings today in search of panels to repaint and I found these three paintings, one which I modified and two I left alone. The fourth I'm working on now to make it more to my liking. I repaintind the blinds in painting with the green and blue striped seating and then stopped by the Art Museum Annex to check out the shows and I found a Matisse exhibit which included his interiors, which are fantastic. The other shows I liked where an exhibit on Frank Gehry's Lewis House which was never completed but which he made outstanding models for an includes some of his bent wood lattice furniture, which I liked alot and they have videos playing with interviews with the home owner, Gehry, Gehry's assistant and Gehry and Richard Serra (sc?).

They also have a show of African American quilters from towns like Yazoo Mississippi and Gee's Bend which is amazing. There's a wide variety of artistic expression and some funny use of pantyhose package figures in one quilt.

Featured on Zombie Penguen Art Blog Wednesday/Thursday

Check out the great interview and my photos on this blog that features different artists! Thanks!

www.zombiepenguenart.blogspot.com